Garcia Dominant In Cards Win, Cubs Off To Best Start in 47 Years

Jaime Garcia was simply dominant against the Milwaukee Brewers. Garcia pitched a one-hitter, allowing only Domingo Santana's lined single into right field with two outs in the sixth inning, in the St. Louis Cardinals' 7-0 victory on Thursday.

"There's a couple guys in their lineup that hit me real well, and it's a tough lineup," Garcia said. "They swing the bat. They take good at-bats every time they go up to the plate, so it's a challenge for me."

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said Garcia was in control from his first pitch.

"Every time he walks out there he has a chance to throw a no-hitter," Matheny said. "It's amazing what he can make the ball do when he is in a good rhythm. This is what we expect to see. When he's healthy, he's special."

Garcia struck out 13, three more than his previous career high, and caught eight of them looking at third strikes. The 13 strikeouts were the most by a Cardinals left-hander since Steve Carlton fanned 16 Phillies on May 21, 1970.

"I was just trying to focus on one pitch at a time and just try to do the job to keep us in the ballgame," Garcia said.

The movement on Garcia's pitches gave the Brewers fits.

"The changeup was acting as a split finger almost," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. "He had plus, plus, plus late movement."

Garcia's previous shutout had been against Milwaukee on May 6, 2011. He is 4-1 with a 1.44 ERA in his last five starts against the Brewers.

"It's been a while since I've been able to go nine innings," Garcia said. "It's definitely a lot of fun, but it's a long season, just got to try to do that again."

Cubs 8, Reds 1

Some longtime Chicago Cubs fans still haven't gotten over the epic collapse of 1969, but their team isn't into black cats or goats or any other excuse at the moment.

Jason Hammel pitched six scoreless innings, drove home one run and scored another to lead the Chicago Cubs to an 8-1 victory and a three-game sweep over the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday night. At 8-1, they've off to their best start in 47 years.

"This is all about the players. I have nothing to do with this," said manager Joe Maddon, who was 15 years old when the Cubs won 11 of 12 to start the '69 season en route to a second-place finish. "Our (players) and coaches have done a great job of prepping. One of our goals was to get off to a good start. The guys took it to heart."

Dexter Fowler and Addison Russell had three hits each for Chicago, and Kris Bryant hit his second home run.

Hammel (1-0) allowed four hits, walked four and struck out three on 88 pitches in chilly weather.

"Any time you're scoring seven-plus runs a game and have a staff that knows a little bit of what they're doing, I think we have a pretty good chance of winning," Hammel said. "Everybody pitched in tonight again. It has been that way for the first eight or nine games."

Raisel Iglesias (1-1) allowed three runs on six hits and two walks over five innings.

The Reds ended the shutout in the ninth against Justin Grimm, the last of three relievers.

Bryant hit a solo homer on a full-count pitch in the second inning for a 1-0 lead. In the fifth, Hammel lined an RBI double, then scored on Ben Zobrist's sacrifice fly.

White Sox 3, Twins 1

Trevor Plouffe lingered in the dugout after Minnesota's ninth straight loss to open the season, staring at the diamond in disappointment.

The bewildered Twins were left wondering how to explain this streak, let alone break it.

Stumbling Thursday to the worst start by a major league team in 13 years, the Twins were beaten by Mat Latos, Avisail Garcia and the Chicago White Sox 3-1.

"We're all frustrated. You can't hide that. It's probably about the worst-case scenario for us to start a season, and we know that," said Plouffe, who drove in the only run with a groundout in the fourth inning.

The Twins have scored only 14 runs. They're hitting .076 with runners in scoring position. According to STATS research, the last team in the majors to begin the year 0-9 was Detroit in 2003, when the Tigers finished 43-119. The Atlanta Braves also dropped to 0-9 on Thursday with a loss at Washington.

"Everybody's kind of down right now because I know we don't score a lot of runs," said Ervin Santana (0-1), the latest starting pitcher to lack support. He allowed three runs in seven innings.

The White Sox (7-2) won their fourth in a row, extending their best start since an 8-1 run in 1982. They're 6-1 on the road after recording their first sweep at Minnesota since 2012.

Thursday, April 14 Scoreboard

Detroit 7, Pittsburgh 4

Philadelphia 3, San Diego 0

Chicago White Sox 3, Minnesota 1

Cleveland 6, Tampa Bay 0

St. Louis 7, Milwaukee 0

Colorado 11,  San Francisco 6

Washington 6, Altanta 2    

Toronto 4, New York Yankees 2

Chicago Cubs 8, Cincinnati 1

Texas 6, Baltimore 3

Kansas City 6, Houston 2

Los Angeles Dodgers 5, Arizona 2

Friday, April 15 Schedule (All Times Central)

Colorado at Chicago Cubs, 12:20 p.m.

New York Mets at Cleveland, 5 p.m.

Seattle at New York Yankees, 5:05 p.m.

Washington at Philadelphia, 5:05 p.m.

Milwaukee at Pittsburgh, 5:05 p.m.

Toronto at Boston, 5:10 p.m.

Atlanta at Miami, 5:10 p.m.

Chicago White Sox at Tampa Bay, 5:10 p.m.

Baltimore at Texas, 6:05 p.m.

Los Angeles Angels at Minnesota, 6:10 p.m.

Detroit at Houston, 6:10 p.m.

Cincinnati at St. Louis, 6:15 p.m.

Kansas City at Oakland, 8:05 p.m.

San Francisco at Los Angeles Dodgers, 8:10 p.m.

Arizona at San Diego, 8:40 p.m.

Saturday, April 16 Schedule (All Times Central)

Seattle at New York Yankees, 11:05 a.m.

Los Angeles Angels at Minnesota, 12:10 p.m.

Cincinnati at St. Louis, 12:15 p.m.

Colorado at Chicago Cubs, 12:20 p.m.

Toronto at Boston, 2:05 p.m.

Kansas City at Oakland, 2:05 p.m.

New York Mets at Cleveland, 2:10 p.m.

Chicago White Sox at Tampa Bay, 4:10 p.m.

Washington at Philadelphia, 5:05 p.m.

Milwaukee at Pittsburgh, 5:05 p.m.

Detroit at Houston, 5:10 p.m.

Atlanta at Miami, 5:10 p.m.

Baltimore at Texas, 6:05 p.m.

Arizona at San Diego, 6:40 p.m.

San Francisco at Los Angeles Dodgers, 7:10 p.m.    

Sunday, April 17 Schedule (All Times Central)

Seattle at New York Yankees, 11:05 a.m.

New York Mets at Cleveland, 11:10 a.m.

Atlanta at Miami, 11:10 a.m.

Chicago White Sox at Tampa Bay, 11:10 a.m.

Toronto at Boston, 11:35 a.m.

Washington at Philadelphia, 11:35 a.m.

Milwaukee at Pittsburgh, 11:35 a.m.

Los Angeles Angels at Minnesota, 12:10 p.m.

Detroit at Houston, 12:10 p.m.

Cincinnati at St. Louis, 12:15 p.m.

Colorado at Chicago Cubs, 12:20 p.m.

Baltimore at Texas, 1:05 p.m.

Kansas City at Oakland, 2:05 p.m.

Arizona at San Diego, 2:40 p.m.

San Francisco at Los Angeles Dodgers, 6 p.m.